© 2025 BC Lions. All rights reserved.
BCLions.com Staff
As part of the CFL’s annual practice roster expansion the Lions added five new bodies this morning. Each season, clubs are permitted to expand their existing practice roster to 15 players with many of those players coming directly from NFL camps.
The Lions added quarterback Jordan Rodgers, receivers Rahsaan Vaughn and Joe Adams as well as defensive tackle Marcus Dixon and punter Richie Leone.
“We’ve had our eye on these guys for some time,” says Neil McEvoy, the club’s director of football operations. “The timing works better now than right after their camps break because a lot of these guys want to wait and see what happens through the first few weeks of the NFL season. Whether it’s injuries or just a personnel decision, the guys we have coming in are literally the final cuts on NFL clubs and trust me, they make mistakes.”
Rodgers joins the Leos after a couple of NFL stops in Jacksonville and Tampa Bay. The brother of Aaron Rodgers also had a brief tryout with the Miami Dolphins. He’ll see some familiar faces in the Lions locker room as fellow practice roster players Rob Lohr and Steven Clarke were teammates with Rodgers at Vanderbilt. The California native enjoyed a brief but remarkable career with the Commodores following his transfer from Butte Community College, finishing his two years of active duty with 299 completions and 4,063 passing yards with 24 majors.
Receivers Adams and Vaughn also come north to the Leos after NFL camps this fall. Adams was a fourth-round pick of the Carolina Panthers who saw the field a few times as a returner in the regular season before being released. He also spent time with the Edmonton Eskimos before getting injured and subsequently released back in June. The former standout at Arkansas bounced back however and was invited to Houston Texans training camp this past August.
Vaughn was a two-year contributor at Oregon in 2011 and 2012 after transferring to the NCAA powerhouse from a California junior college. The Oakland native is a speedster who caught the eye of the New York Jets back in 2013. He stuck around on the Jets’ practice roster following camp last year but was ultimately released when the club ran into injuries at other positions. Vaughn was most recently in camp with the Oakland Raiders.
Dixon has the most accomplished resume of the new additions after spending the past five or so seasons with a number of NFL clubs. The Hampton University grad who was a conference all-star in 2006 and 2007 toiled on the practice roster of the Dallas Cowboys for a couple years before signing with the New York Jets in 2010 and appearing in 22 games over the next three years. The defensive tackle went to camp with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013 as well as the Tennessee Titans this past August.
Leone was highly-decorated punter at the University of Houston where he earned a first-team Conference USA selection in 2012 and a second-team nod in 2013. The Georgia native was a three-time Ray Guy Award semi-finalist as college football’s top punter.
All five newcomers will be on the field Monday morning as the Lions come off their final bye-week of the season and prepare to travel to Winnipeg to take on the ‘Bombers this Saturday.
MEET THE NEW GUYS